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Main Ideas from What You Heard is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on pulling the main ideas out of something presented, aligned to Common Core standard SL.3.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 3 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Main Ideas from What You Heard

SL.3.2

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Turning Milk into Cheese

Cheese begins as an accident that people learned to repeat. Milk is mostly water with fat and protein in it. To make cheese, the protein has to be separated out. A starter culture of bacteria is added first. The bacteria turn some of the milk sugar into acid, and the acid begins to make the protein clump together. Then rennet is added, which finishes the job. The milk splits into solid curds and watery whey. The whey is drained off. The curds are pressed, salted, and left to age. Time does the rest: a cheese aged for two years tastes nothing like the same cheese at two weeks.

  1. 1. What are the two parts the milk splits into?
  2. 2. What is the main idea of this text, and which details support it?
  3. 3. What is added first?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why Swallows Leave

Swallows do not leave Britain because of the cold. They leave because of the insects. A swallow eats flying insects, and it catches them in the air. In October the insects disappear, and a bird that eats nothing else has to follow the food. So swallows fly to southern Africa: about six thousand miles, taking roughly six weeks. They travel by day and feed as they go. They lose about a third of their body weight on the way. Many do not arrive. The following spring they return, and a swallow will often nest in the very barn it hatched in.

  1. 1. How much weight do they lose?
  2. 2. How far do swallows fly?
  3. 3. Summarise this text in one sentence.

LessonPrint · SL.3.2 · Set 3 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Main Ideas from What You Heard

Set 3. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Solid curds and watery whey. 2. Cheese is made by separating milk protein — supported by the bacteria, the rennet and the pressing. 3. A starter culture of bacteria.
  2. 2.1. About a third of their body weight. 2. About six thousand miles. 3. Swallows fly six thousand miles to southern Africa because the flying insects they eat disappear in October, and return the next spring.

More practice for SL.3.2

Pick out the main ideas and details from something you heard or saw.

Teaching this next? Getting the Main Ideas From Listening is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.3.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.